ATLANTA _ After 13 consecutive innings without a run, the Miami Marlins needed a jolt. There was no better option than Jorge Alfaro.
The catcher, who came over to the Marlins in February as part of the J.T. Realmuto trade in February, delivered his first signature moment with Miami on Saturday in a 4-2 win against the Atlanta Braves. First, Alfaro launched a 365-foot opposite-field home run to get the Marlins on the board in the bottom of the fourth and snap the extended scoreless drought. Then, he gave Miami its first win since Sunday, blasting another opposite-field home run in the top of the ninth to put the Marlins ahead of the Braves for good at SunTrust Park.
All season long, Miami (3-6) has had success in the late innings _ particularly the ninth. A leadoff single by second baseman Starlin Castro set the stage again in the second game of a three-game series in Atlanta, bringing Alfaro to the plate. The 25-year-old jumped ahead in the count 2-0 as relief pitcher A.J. Minter pumped fastballs. The fifth pitch of the at-bat was a four-seamer on the outside of the plate and Alfaro reached out to get it again, firing it 369 feet over the right-field fence to give the Marlins a 4-2 lead on the Braves (4-4) and silence the crowd of 35,618.
Miami kept pitcher Sergio Romo in to face the first batter of the bottom of the ninth inning, then replaced Romo (1-0) with relief pitcher Adam Conley, who notched his first save of the season.
It was an all-hands-on-deck effort for the Marlins' pitching staff to get Miami in position to pounce on Minter (0-1) in the ninth.
Six days after he became the youngest pitcher since Jose Fernandez to throw eight scoreless innings, Alcantara had to battle himself at SunTrust. The 23-year-old struggled to locate his fastball and lasted only four innings. The starting pitcher needed 93 pitches to get through his four innings and 38 of those were balls. Alcantara induced only five swings and misses, didn't strike out a single batter and walked five.
For the first time since Alcantara's gem against the Colorado Rockies on Sunday, the Marlins' offense picked up its starter. Alcantara was in line to take his first loss of the season after giving up his second run in the bottom of the fourth inning before Miami hit back. Alfaro led off the inning with his first homer and first baseman Peter O'Brien slammed another to right two batters later to knot the score. Manager Don Mattingly handed the ball to his bullpen to keep the tie going.
Tayron Guerrero tossed one scoreless frame, then fellow relief pitchers Nick Anderson and Drew Steckenrider each gave the Marlins another. All season long, the Marlins have been far more dangerous against opposing bullpens than opposing starters and their pitching _ with just enough early offense _ finally gave them a chance to actually get some tangible results from their penchant for late-inning threats.
Romo tossed a 1-2-3 eighth inning to keep the tie into the ninth, when Miami finally broke through to snap a four-game losing streak and even its three-game set in Georgia.
